Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of messaging and more particularly to the integration of business objects within a message.
Description of the Related Art
Messaging forms the heart of the Internet. The Internet with its global, continuous reach enables interpersonal activities from afar, including both asynchronous messaging like e-mail and document sharing and threaded discussions, to real time communications systems such as instant messaging and group chat. Electronic mail delivery systems, the prototypical asynchronous communications systems, in its time represented a giant leap forward in respect to global interpersonal communications. Prior to electronic mail, individuals primarily communicated via telephone, facsimile and post. With electronic mail, however, individuals expect near instant delivery of text, and even imagery, audio and video, without incurring the delay typical of the postal system, or the expense associated with telephony and fax technologies.
Despite the ubiquity of electronic mail, asynchronous communications systems lack several elements common in the realm of real time communications systems. In particular, the seemingly instant delivery of a message cannot be experienced in the world of electronic mail. In a real-time society, the minor latencies associated with electronic mail often cannot be suitable for the task at hand where a real-time conversation will be required in addressing a problem or performing a collaborative task. More importantly, often the feel and nature of a “conversation” as it is known to human beings only can be approximated through real time communications where the participants to a conversation feel the spontaneity of an exchange of ideas, much as is the case in a live, face-to-face conversation. Thus, the instant messaging environment has proven to be an invaluable compliment to e-mail as a real-time conversational mechanism.
Conventional messaging systems allow users to exchange messages across a network. As a stand alone application, messaging enjoys straightforward application as a conversational tool. Within, the business workflow environment, however, the role of the message, whether synchronous or asynchronous, is less clear. A business workflow generally involves the electronic and in person collaboration between collaborators in order to accomplish a goal. As part of the business workflow, collaborators receive documents electronically, amend the documents and ultimately approve or disprove of the distribution of the document. Business objects have been specifically incorporated into document editing and document viewing applications in order to permit the management of a document in a business workflow.
Specifically, a business object encapsulates traditional lower-level objects that implement a business process. Notably, business objects both simulate corporate procedures and translate smoothly into software objects. Historically, business objects have been embedded in Web pages and e-mail documents using client side extensions to browser clients. More recently, scripts disposed in client side content like Web pages and e-mail messages have been configured to maintain an active connection with underlying business objects to provide an integrated active view of the business objects. The integration of business objects, however, has largely eluded both asynchronous communications like e-mail, shared documents and threaded discussions, and synchronous real-time applications like instant messengers and group chat sessions.